1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to printing machines and processes and in particular to a combined lithographic/flexographic in-line printing apparatus and process.
2. Description of Related Art
As used herein, the following terms have the meanings indicated:
ANILOX ROLLER
A steel or ceramic ink metering roller. Its surface is engraved with tiny, uniform cells that carry and deposit a thin, controlled layer of ink film or coating material onto the plate. In flexo  flexograhic presswork, anilox rollers transfer a controlled ink film from the rubber plate (or rubber-covered roller) to the web to print the image. Anilox rollers are also used in remoistenable glue units and to create “scratch-and-sniff” perfume ads.
ANILOX SYSTEM
The inking method commonly employed on flexographic presses. An elastomer-covered fountain roller supplies a controlled ink film from the ink pan to the engraved metering roller. After ink floods the metering roller, the fountain roller is squeezed or wiped usually with a doctor blade to remove the excess ink. The ink that remains on the metering roller is then transferred to the rubber printing plate.
COATER
A device with a pan to contain the coating material, a pan roller partially immersed in the coating material contained in the pan, and a coater roller to meter off a uniform film of the coating material and apply it to the printing plate.
COATING
An unbroken, clear film applied to a substrate in layers to protect and seal it, or to make it glossy.
FLEXOGRAPHIC INK
A quick-drying, fluid ink that is highly volatile or an ink that can be water based and nonvolatile.
FLEXOGRAPHY
A method of rotary letterpress printing characterized by the use of flexible, rubber, or plastic plates with raised image areas and fluid, rapid-drying inks.
HALFTONES
Dot-pattern images that have the appearance of continuous-tone images because of the limited resolving power of the human eye. This limitation accounts for an optical illusion; small halftone dots, when viewed at the normal reading distance, cannot be resolved as individual dots but blend into a continuous tone.
LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES
A lithographic plate is precoated with a light-sensitive or otherwise imageable coating, and the separation between the image and nonimage areas is maintained chemically. The image areas must be ink receptive and refuse water and the nonimage areas must be water receptive and refuse ink. The wider the difference maintained between the ink receptivity of the image areas and the water receptivity of the nonimage areas, the better the plate will be, the easier it will run on the press, and, consequently, the better the printing. There are several types of lithographic plates. The plate is an image carrier that is said to be planographic, or flat and smooth.
LITHOGRAPHY
A printing process in which the image carrier or plate is chemically treated so that the image areas are receptive to ink.
OFFSET PRINTING
An indirect printing method in which the inked image on a press plate is first transferred to a rubber blanket, that in turn “offsets” the inked impression to a press sheet. In offset lithography, the printing plate has been photochemically treated to produce image areas receptive to ink.
SLURRY
A water suspension of fibers or the suspension of pigment and adhesive used to coat papers. It may also include a suspended metallic material such as uniform-sized metal particles or nonuniform-sized metal particles.
ULTRAVIOLET INKS
Printing inks containing an activator that causes the polymerization of binders and solvents after exposure to a source of ultraviolet radiation.
Offset lithography is a process that is well known in the art and utilizes the planographic method. This means that the image and nonprinting areas are essentially on the same plane of a thin metal plate and the distinction between them is maintained chemically. There are two basic differences between offset lithography and other processes. First, it is based on the principle that grease and water do not mix. Second, the ink is offset from the first plate to a rubber blanket and then from the blanket to a substrate on which printing is to occur such as paper.
When the printing plate is made, the printing image is made grease receptive and water repellent and the nonprinting areas are made water receptive and ink repellent. The plate is mounted on the plate cylinder of the press which, as it rotates, comes in contact successively with rollers wet by a water or dampening solution and rollers wet by ink. The dampening solution wets the nonprinting areas of the plate and prevents the ink from wetting these areas. The ink wets the image areas which are transferred to the intermediate blanket cylinder. The inked image is transferred to the substrate as it passes between the blanket cylinder and the impression cylinder. Transferring the image from the plate to a rubber blanket before transfer to the substrate is called the offset principle.
One major advantage of the offset principle is that the soft rubber surface of the blanket creates a clear impression on a wide variety of paper surfaces and other substrate materials with both rough and smooth textures with a minimum of press preparation.
Offset lithography has equipment for short, medium and long runs. Both sheetfed and web presses are used. Sheetfed lithography is used for printing advertising, books, catalogs, greeting cards, posters, labels, packaging, folding boxes, decalcomanias, coupons, trading stamps, and art reproductions. Many sheetfed presses can perfect (print both sides of the paper) in one pass through the press. Web offset is used for printing business forms, newspapers, preprinted newspaper inserts, advertising literature, catalogs, long-run books, encyclopedias, and magazines.
In offset lithography, the rubber blanket surface conforms to irregular printing surfaces, resulting in the need for less pressure and preparation. It has improved print quality of text and halftones on rough surfaced papers. Further, the substrate does not contact the printing plate thereby increasing plate life and reducing abrasive wear. Also, the image on the plate is right for reading rather than reverse reading. Finally, less ink is required for equal coverage, drying is speeded, and smudging and setoff are reduced. Setoff is a condition that results when wet ink on the surface of the press sheets transfers or sticks to the backs of other sheets in the delivery pile.
Thus, in summary, conventional lithographic offset printing machines or presses comprise one or more image printing stations each having a printing roller or a plate cylinder to which is fastened a thin hydrophilic, oleophobic printing plate having image areas which are oleophilic and hydrophobic and background areas which are oleophobic and hydrophilic. The plate surface is continuously wetted with an aqueous damping solution which adheres only to the background areas and inked with oleo-resinous inks which adhere only to the image areas of the plate as wet ink. The ink is offset transferred to the rubber surface of a contacting blanket cylinder and then retransferred to the receptive surface of a copy web or a succession of copy sheets, such as paper, with an impression cylinder and the ink air dries by oxidation and curing after passing through a drying station.
It is also known to provide the printing machine with a downstream coating station having a blanket roller associated with a coating application unit for the application of an overall protective coating over the entire printed area of the copy sheets or web.
It is known to apply pattern coatings of protective composition by means of blanket rolls by cutting into the rubber surface of the blanket to create raised or relief surface areas which selectively receive the coating composition from the application roll for retransfer to selected areas of the copy sheets in form of pattern coatings. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,556.
Lithographic inks are formulated to print from planographic surfaces which use the principle that grease and water do not mix. Lithographic inks are generally very strong in color value to compensate for the lesser amount applied. They are among the strongest of all inks. The average amount of ink transferred to the paper is about half that of letter press because of the double split of the ink film between the plate cylinder and the blanket cylinder and the blanket cylinder and the substrate on the impression cylinder.
Problems occur in the offset lithographic process when attempting to print certain colors such as white and in particular white on other colors such as yellow because the color white will be faint and not sufficiently strong. In such cases, the sheet or paper or substrate requiring the white ink usually has to be run through the same printer several times before the white becomes sufficiently strong.
Further, such colors are not generally printable in an offset lithographic printing process. This means that the sheets or substrate must be removed and transferred to a second type of machine using the flexographic process to apply greater amounts of ink in successive printing runs to achieve the desired print quality.
A like situation occurs with the printing of slurry-type materials such as “scratch-and-sniff” materials which is a liquid vehicle with a slurry containing an encapsulated essence. Such liquid vehicles, because of the nature of the slurry, must be printed with a flexographic process because the anilox roller can supply greater amounts of ink to the flexo  flexographic plate on the plate cylinder.
Again, when a liquid vehicle with a slurry having suspended material therein such as metallic particles is to be printed, an offset lithographic process cannot be used without the mixing of the aqueous solution with metallic inks which cause a dulling of the image. Further, the above-mentioned double split of the ink film adds to the dulling of the image. Therefore, to achieve desired results, the printing must take place with a flexographic printing machine.
Thus, liquid opaque coatings or inks such as white colored ink, scratch-and-sniff vehicles, and slurries with metal particles do not achieve desired results when printed in an offset lithographic process and must be transferred from the offset lithographic in-line machines to a separate machine for printing in a separate run.
Such requirements not only hinder the speed of the printing process but also require additional time and thus increase the cost of the printing.
It would be advantageous to have a continuous in-line process in which not only offset lithographic printing could take place but in which, in the same in-line process, liquid printing vehicles including opaque coatings, such as white ink, and slurries containing encapsulated essences or metallic particles could also be printed and dried not only before the printing of the offset lithographic inks but also in which, after the liquid opaque coatings have been applied, an overcoating could be applied to the printed liquid vehicle image using the lithographic process in the continuous in-line process.